Full text: Silicon Valley boycotting Modi constitutes 'economic war against India', says new letter

A letter signed by a group of US-based academics, implacably opposed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, has advocated a boycott of India by Silicon Valley.

The attempt to instigate a boycott by Silicon Valley, one of the leading sectors of the US and world economy, against cooperation with a vital flagship information technology programme of the Government of India effectively constitutes a call for economic war against India itself.

Shri Narendra Modi is visiting the USA as the democratically elected Prime Minister of 1.25 billion Indians. The victory he has secured at the hustings has been the grandest triumph in three long decades. Not only that, under his leadership his party and alliance have formed Governments in four provinces across India including the state of Jammu and Kashmir. This clearly establishes the fact that people of India, transcending barriers of caste, class, creed and community have reposed their faith in the Prime Minister.

The Digital India initiative, which the enlightened signatories decry, is going to transform government and governance in India. It will take technology to the remotest corners of India and eliminate corruption. It will profoundly change the lives of ordinary citizens who have to run from pillar to post in their dealings with official India and ensure speed, accuracy and disbursement of welfare to the poorest. Prime Minister Modi intends India’s embryonic digitization endeavor to become a vehicle for the transformation of Indian society by deepening and democratizing it.

The process of digitization of the government-citizen interface is already in place in most advanced countries. Yet, academics based there allege civil liberties in India will be endangered if its own government adopts the rational and efficient measure of digitizing to improve governance that is standard elsewhere. Moreover, India is home to several digital innovators and a vibrant start-up ecosystem that stands to gain tremendously from the Digital India initiative.

Silicon Valley, which is where the transition to a digital world began, is, thus, a natural place for the Prime Minister to visit and explore cooperation and growth opportunities in IT.

Shri Narendra Modi has already unveiled schemes that were previously unheard of in nature and extent in the sphere of governance. For the first time the Government of India launched a financial inclusion scheme, Jan Dhan Yojana.

Continuing this focus on the poor and the marginalized the Government has initiated a social security programme as well. These schemes have already touched millions of Indians. The wheels of economic reforms have begun moving at an unprecedented pace, with global agencies and organizations taking note of India’s strides. Shri Narendra Modi’s clarion call to ‘Make in India’ has drawn the world to invest in India and create employment for the people.

The faculty statement concerning Prime Minister Modi’s alleged culpability for the tragic events of 2002 is even more of a disgrace. It is a belabored and questionable effort to throw mud at PM Modi as a person; in the desperate hope some of it would stick. The canard of his alleged responsibility for the communal rioting in Gujarat in 2002 has been comprehensively debunked by a high powered Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed and intensively monitored by the Supreme Court of India at a period when Narendra Modi was not even the Prime Minister. By ignoring the fact that India’s Apex Court has exonerated Mr. Modi of all charges over 2002 amounts to defamation. It also reflects their scant regard for India’s judicial process and her time tested constitutional institutions.

Other slanders in the petition against India’s incumbent executive authority are unworthy of comment. The cavalier disregard for facts and paucity of measured judgment also demonstrate that signatories to the malicious counsel against India have very little stake in it. It seems as if they are determined to pursue a vengeful agenda against a democratically elected Prime Minister of the country even if it seriously harms the interests of the people of India. As scholars and public intellectuals from around the world, we submit that we have far more faith in the wisdom of the ordinary people of India than in the motivated slander concocted by a tiny group of first world academicians.

We urge the signatories of the letter to lift the veil of ignorance and grasp the bigger picture. They should stop seeking fame by thriving on misplaced victimhood and false grievances. It is ironic that those who claim to be most exercised about “human Rights” and “civil liberties” have arrogated to themselves the power to judge and mock the democratic choice of those very same masses they purport to speak on behalf.